Schalke promise Rangnick-style success

BERLIN - Brief news from the Bundesliga before this weekend's matches:

Published

23 September 2011

Schalke 04 have pledged to honour former coach Ralf Rangnick, who stepped down on Thursday citing exhaustion, with a win against Freiburg.

"You can say we will be playing for him," said defender Christoph Metzelder. "Such a decision, two days before a game comes as a shock."

"This cannot be an excuse for us on Saturday. We want to win against Freiburg and the victory must bear Rangnick's hallmark."

Champions Borussia Dortmund, who face Mainz 05 on Saturday, could soon welcome back striker Lucas Barrios after the Paraguay international completed a full training session for the first time this season.

Barrios injured his thigh muscle during the Copa America final against Uruguay on July 24 when he came on as a substitute in the 76th minute. Paraguay lost 3-0 and Barrios has not played since.

"On Wednesday he completed his first full training session," coach Jurgen Klopp told reporters. "Lucas is not a magician. He must now find his footing. That could take a few days."

Hamburg SV interim coach Rodolfo Cardoso will not make any big changes as he goes into his first game in charge after the sacking of Michael Oenning earlier this week.

"At such short term you can only change details. I will not overhaul everything. The team needs stability and security and on Friday the team must know exactly what it needs to do."

Last-placed Hamburg, who have yet to win this season and have only one point from six games, take on VfB Stuttgart later on Friday.

Get FourFourTwo interviews, features and fun in your inbox every week. For free!

Thank you for registering for our Newsletter

We will send regular updates on the ongoing FourFourTwo updates to the email address you have supplied.